Age and Sex Differences in the Use of Emergency Telephone Consultation Services in Saitama, Japan: A Population-Based Observational Study.

Akihisa Nakamura,Kazuhiko Kotani,Toshie Manabe,Hiroyuki Teraura

doi:10.3390/ijerph17010185

Abstract

The frequency of use of emergency telephone consultation (ETC) services, which is a telephone triage system in Japan, was explored to determine age- and sex-related trends on symptoms/events among Japanese adults. Data were obtained from records of the initial year of ETC services in Saitama Prefecture (from October 2014 to September 2015). Residents who used the ETC services were divided into four age groups (20–39, 40–64, 65–74, and ≥75 years old). The number of calls per 1000 persons (call rate, CR) was compared between the groups. The annual CR for the top 10 symptoms/events were assessed. The annual CR was 2.6/1000 persons. The annual CR was significantly higher for women (2.9) than for men (2.3) (p < 0.05). ETC use was the highest in the 20–39 age group for both sexes (3.3 and 4.4 in men and women, respectively). All groups had fever, abdominal pain, and nausea/vomiting in common. In older adults, the frequency of events such as bruises and head injury was high. Women and younger adults tended to use ETC services. There were similarities and differences in symptoms/events among the groups, which should be recognized by call centers to help foster call center staff.

Highlights

Emergency telephone consultation (ETC) services provide a telephone triage system for urgent care in Japan [1]
The recorded items were the general characteristics of users who used the ETC service, including date of use, place of residence, symptoms/events as the reasons to use ETC services, and the relationship of callers who made a call for users
A total of 22,073 ETC users were recorded during the study period, 1586 of whom were excluded because of their young ages, i.e.,

Summary

Introduction

Emergency telephone consultation (ETC) services provide a telephone triage system for urgent care in Japan [1]. Similar telephone triage systems have been introduced in other developed countries [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. A previous study on the appropriate use of ambulances reported that the ETC services in Tokyo contributed to a 3.7% decrease in the need for ambulance transport over the first year of operations [1]. Following these results, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency has promoted the national development of ETC services. The number of local governments introducing this service has gradually increased in Japan and approximately 40%

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